Gift
by clover bookcat
Summary: Christmas is supposed to be a special time of year. Too bad that the one person who you want to get a special gift for is usually the hardest to give a present to. Haughtyshipping plus others.


**A/N: For this oneshot, I came up with the idea while I was raking leaves back in the fall. The pairing is…*dramatic drum roll* HAUGHTYSHIPPING! Of course, I'm sure a majority of people had suspicions about that, right? XP It saddens me to know that this lovely pairing gets very little stuff written for it, so I'm taking matters into my own hands. Though it kind of turned into more of an all-around family/Holder fic then just a Haughty tribute…-cough- Anyway! Please enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokespecial, Pokemon, or the carol mentioned in this fic. If you think I do, then you need your eyes checked. That or your Google search engine.**

**Pearl's POV**

I was stumped. Completely, totally, utterly stuck.

"Pearl, if you keep running around like that, you'll run into something."

I stopped and turned to glare at Dia, who was sitting on a rock, eating out of a bag of jelly beans, Beh sharing handfuls next to him. We were currently on Route 201, on our way back to our hometown to prepare for Christmas. We'd stopped to take a break, or, in Dia's case, a snack break.

"I'm trying to come up with an idea!"

"An idea!" Chatlord squawked from his perch on the bike I'd parked.

"I still don't think that you should run around so a close to a tree, though."

I sighed, walked up to him, and took him by the shoulders. "Listen, Dia…No, Diamond! Christmas is in exactly one week, there's a party that's currently being planned up at the mansion, and if we don't get something for everyone, who knows what she'll say!"

"But I thought you'd already gotten everybody something," Dia said, taking out another handful of 'Jubilife's Holiday Jelly Beans!' and stuffing them into his mouth.

"That's the thing, I thought I did! At least, almost," I said, and started listing off my fingers. "A video of the last League for Red, since he missed it, the latest 'Pokemon Mythology' for Green, a necklace for Blue, some sweets for Yellow-"

"Is that why you took away my chocolate?" Dia cried, outraged. Apparently, this new 'revelation' was enough for him to momentarily forget about the jelly beans he had been chewing. Beh kept munching on his mouthful.

"I told you, I don't know what happened to your chocolate! Anyway…" I gave up my attempt to tick off the list, instead giving a one-armed shrug. "I got presents for all our seniors, even Emerald, and Mew forbid he was hard enough to figure out-"

"What'd you get him?"

"Hairspray."

"Hair-?"

"Quit interrupting! Like I was saying, that's all well and good, but if we don't get that woman something, then it's practically pointless!"

"Are you talking about the Little Miss, Pearl?" Dia asked mildly.

"Little Miss!" Chatlord repeated.

"Yes, I'm talking about her!" I threw up my hands in the air, exasperated. "She's been hinting at it with every passing day, mentioning that party! I can just tell that if we don't get her something good, she'll never let us live it down."

"So you haven't gotten her anything?"

I stared at him. "Haven't I got…Dia, we were supposed to get her something together!"

"Oh. Whoops." Absentmindedly, he reached inside the bag of beans again and handed Beh some more candy. The Munchlax accepted happily. "Well, I already baked her a cake. Right now I'm on layer number forty-three~!" He smiled, looking especially proud of himself.

"_Forty-?_"

"I wanted to make a big cake," Dia said, as if that explained everything. "It's been really hard not eating any of it, though…"

I blinked, then put my hands up on each side of my head and resumed my previous pacing. "Okay…okay, don't panic. There's still time…even if I haven't got any idea what to get her and you do, so I'll have to come up with something myself…but that's not a problem, right?"

"Pearl, I can't tell if you're talking to me or to yourself," Dia said around another mouthful of jelly beans. I ignored him.

"Dia, don't you get it? She's never failed to get anything she wants, she told me so herself. Every year, all she has to do is go shopping and she can buy whatever her Christmas present is. In other words, I can't get her anything. I don't have your cooking skills, and I don't have her wealth…So what am I supposed to do?" I demanded at the sky.

"To do!" Chatlord squawked again.

"I don't really see why it's so hard," Dia said, "Little Miss would probably be happy with whatever you decided to get her. And besides, it's not like she wants exquisite objects or items, or anything. She already has a bunch of those."

"Don't remind me," I grumbled, venting my frustrations by kicking a pebble at the nearby tree. "What are you supposed to get a woman who's already got everything?"

"Everything!" Chatlord echoed.

"Oh, the classic married couple dilemma," Dia said wisely, swallowing the last of his jelly beans.

I lost my patience. Grabbing my harisen out of my bag, I smacked Dia upside the head.

"Ow! Pearl, you never said we were doing a manzai routine~"

"We're not," I snapped.

Dia looked at me reproachfully. "If you need help coming up with a gift, I can always help you, you know."

"No, you can't. If I don't get the gift myself, there's no meaning to it."

For some reason, this made him smile. "Okay then. But just to remind you, Pearl, the one thing I'm really good at is cooking. That's really the only reason why I made a cake for Little Miss, because my talents aren't in anything else."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah. So speaks the guy who helped save the Sinnoh region with the rest of us." I gestured back towards Twinleaf. "You go on ahead. I'll take a detour and meet up with you in a bit."

Dia just smiled some more and headed down the path home, Beh padding along beside him.

I looked after for him for a second, then went over to the bike and undid its chain. Chatlord, seeing what I was trying to do, flew over to my shoulder.

"Maybe a ride can give me some ideas, this time," I said hopelessly.

"This time!" Chatlord said.

**Platina's POV**

I smiled to myself. The whole evening was going wonderfully.

Christmas Eve night…Sebastian had outdone himself for the decorations, I knew. The entire Berlitz mansion was covered in satin ribbons, lights, and holly. The ballroom, in particular, was lavishly fastened with lace and candles, and the maids bustled around to all the guests taking and delivering orders. When I had welcomed my seniors' arrival several hours earlier, they all looked impressed.

"Magnificent! Beautiful!" Monsieur Ruby had exclaimed, dancing from room to room with a digital camera he had brought with him. The girls had all looked starry eyed, gazing at one another and at the decorations with something that might have been close to shock.

"Yer sure we can hang out in such a pretty place, Platina?" Sapphire had asked, looking more awed then anyone else.

"'Course we can!" Gold had said from his position at the juice bar, "It's Christmas! Besides," he added, "this kind of setup totally fits me!"

Crystal didn't hesitate in kicking him in the face.

The party was going well. The plan was to hold the festivities until midnight, when the presents would be handed out.

Stirring from my thoughts, I noticed that there seemed to be a commotion from the far end of the ballroom. It seemed like Gold was trying to convince Silver to abandon his post next to the dinner table and come out onto the dance floor with some of my other seniors.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" I heard him encourage.

Silver held onto the table firmly, shaking his head vehemently. Gold was not to be discouraged – by contrast, he redoubled his attempts. Crystal then walked over and joined him and, with their combined efforts, succeeded in dragging him out onto the floor.

As I watched the excursion, Blue joined me at my table.

"Honestly," she said, sounding slightly breathless, "all the men at this party have a morbid fear of music and moving their feet. Did you see Red?"

I shook my head.

"He's hiding behind that giant Christmas tree. Really, if he'd just _ask_ Yellow to dance and get it done with instead of worrying about it for so long, he'd save them both a lot of trouble. Not that it's going to do much good now, since I think she's gone and gotten herself punch drunk." With a dramatic sigh, she called over a maid and ordered an Oran Mix. "Is it even possible to get drunk on fruit punch? Does this have any alcohol?"

"I believe there is a drop or so, for added flavor. I once read that if a person has extremely low tolerance of alcohol, however, it may be enough to make them drunk." I sipped at my own glass. "I apologize – if I had known that Yellow was not used to drinking, I would have had Sebastian refrain from adding it in."

"Oh, now, don't blame yourself," Blue said, waving my apology aside, "At least you're making an effort to make this a pleasant experience. I mean, just look at this place!" She gestured at the ceiling. "I've never seen anything like it, and if _I_ haven't, you can be sure that few people have."

"Thank you very much."

"Really, though," she said, taking her drink from the maid who appeared at her side, "some people don't seem to be in…what's it called? Christmas spirit," she glared at her cup. I had a feeling that this was the reason she'd been breathless moments before. "If a girl wants to dance with you and makes it perfectly clear, then you'd best accept their invitation! Am I right?" she demanded.

"I think," I said carefully, "that some people just aren't used to taking the lead in that sort of situation."

"Hmph. I suppose."

Inwardly, I breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully I had just saved Green a good few hours of Blue's pestering.

I was distracted by a scuffling sound from my right. As I turned, I saw Sapphire, bright red, running out into the middle of the room, followed by a smirking Ruby. Behind them, sitting at a table, Emerald looked very annoyed.

"What was that about?" I asked.

Blue shook her head. "Oh, Ruby's been pestering Sapphire about the mistletoe this whole time. I'm surprised he hasn't convinced her yet, to be honest."

This caught my interest. "Mistletoe? What is that?"

"You don't know?"

I nodded, very curious now. "It's very cute, actually. The rule of thumb for mistletoe is that, during Christmas, any couple found under one are required to kiss."

I felt my eyes widen in surprise. "Monsieur Ruby is trying to get her to do _that_?" I asked, slightly incredulous.

Blue laughed. "In the long run, yes. He'll corner her eventually. But," she handed her now empty glass over to another maid, "you've really never heard of it? It's supposed to grow in cold regions, so I thought people would know it better in Sinnoh."

"Perhaps…though I have never really researched Sinnoh's plants outside of berries," I admitted.

"I've heard of it," Dia said, startling me. I hadn't heard him approach. "Although not really in the same sense."

"What do you mean?"

"There's a story," he said, taking a slice of pie from the table, "where two lovers blessed by Mespirit were killed on Christmas Eve, trying to protect the other. Their spirits inhabited a plant, the mistletoe, and because they wanted to grant happiness that they couldn't obtain, that's how the legend came to pass that people are required to kiss under one on Christmas Eve."

Blue sniffed. "What a romantic story."

"Oui. It is certainly intriguing," I agreed, "But how do you know of it, Dia?"

"We live practically next door to Lake Verity," Dia said, cheerfully biting into the slice of pie, "so my mom's told it to me when I was little. I think Pearl knows it, too, but I can't remember if he was ever really interested in it."

Something rang dully at the back of my mind at the mention of my second companion. Now that I thought of it, I hadn't seen Pearl throughout the day, and Sebastian hadn't come to inform me of any arrivals after my initial meeting with my seniors.

"Shame," Blue said distractedly, "Dia, do me a favor and not leave this table? I'd like to talk to you, but there's something I need to do first."

"Sure, Miss Blue~" Dia said, looking sideways at the brown spiky head that had appeared next to the tree. Smiling at us, she left the table.

With nothing to distract me, I felt my chest well up with what I recognized as disappointment. Even though he had said that he would come…

Dia glanced at me, then tapped his fork to his chin thoughtfully. "I wonder if Pearl's still visiting Verity? He said that he had business to take care of, but…If he doesn't come soon, he won't be back in time to open presents, right?" Setting down his pie, he turned to me. "Should I go and get him, Little Miss? I know you've got to host this party, after all, and Sebastian probably wouldn't want you to leave."

"Lake Verity, was it not?"

He nodded.

I considered this, then said, "But one of a hostess' responsibilities is to keep track of her guests, as well. Sebastian knows this." I got up, placing my glass on the table. "I shall go fetch him myself."

"I'll just stay here and enjoy this food, Little Miss. There's no need for both of us to go, and once he gets here there probably won't be much time to eat."

"Because of the schedule?" I asked.

"That, and other things," Dia said amiably. "Now I think you should be back before midnight, Miss, which is in about an hour. I don't think Sebastian would really agree with this idea, either, so try not to be seen on your way out, okay~?"

I agreed, then edged my way around the room towards the entrance hall. This was greatly assisted by Dia, who joined Beh and the rest of his team to surround a table loaded in Tomato gingerbread. Crumbs and sauce flew through the air, along with yells of surprise. It was no difficulty to slip through the front door.

Once outside, I whistled for Rapidash, who galloped around the corner from the direction of the stables. Swinging myself onto his back, we started off towards Verity.

**Pearl's POV**

I ran a hand through my hair and sighed. I seemed to be doing that a lot today.

"Little Miss! Little Miss!" Chatlord squawked from a branch above me.

"Chatlord, come on, I don't feel like having this conversation again," I said moodily. He seemed to sense something was wrong, and went quiet.

The sky was cloudy grey, and it would probably snow soon. Fit how I felt at the moment pretty well, I figured. Too bad the grey in the sky reminded me of a certain person's eye color.

I resisted the urge to sigh again, getting up from where I had been sitting on the ground instead. "Sorry," I called to Chatlord, "let's-"

And a giant horse crashed into me.

Can I just say that it is extremely painful to be hit by a flaming horse?

"Yeow!" I yelled, crashing back onto the ground. Behind me, I heard a distinctly familiar voice say, "Ow."

"Miss?" I called, rubbing my head where I'd hit it, "what are you doing here?"

She was quiet, and for a second I couldn't see her because Rapidash was blocking my view. "I…I came to look for you." It sounded like she was admitting it through gritted teeth. Unsurprising, considering she normally contradicted everything I said.

"Why?" I asked.

"You…you were not present at the festivities, and I wanted to hear your explanation-"

"You snuck out of the party?" I demanded, sitting straight up and accidentally hitting my head on a particularly low tree branch.

While I clutched at my skull, I heard Missy say, "Rapidash, you may wait over there," followed by the sound of clopping hooves. A moment later, I was looking into Missy's face, instead of red and orange flames. Some weird part of my brain noticed that her hat was gone; maybe it had fallen off when we'd crashed.

"Are you alright?"

I moved my hands away from my face, although my head was still pounding. "I'm fine. But what were you thinking? You can't just sneak out of your house with guests over! I thought a lady was supposed to be taught stuff like that."

Her cheeks turned slightly pink, but she spoke like she was unaffected by what I said. "That is not currently relevant. And you are avoiding my first question."

I looked down. "My excuse for not showing up?"

"Yes. Even though you promised," she said accusingly, and lowered her face to meet mine.

I didn't say anything.

She waited, clearly certain that I had a perfectly good and logical reason for avoiding her, not the pathetic excuse that I had. When it was clear I wasn't going to speak, her grey eyes filled with hurt, but she got up and turned to leave.

Something about that small figure snapped my resolve, and I called after her, "It's because I'm stupid."

She turned and looked at me, one delicate eyebrow raised. "Excuse me?"

"It's just…" I shrugged, miserable. "Your Christmas present? I didn't get it."

She didn't react, just kept that eyebrow in place. "And your reason?"

"You told me before – you've always gotten whatever you really wanted for Christmas, by yourself or with your dad. And I…I over think things. If I didn't, I probably wouldn't have had this much of a problem coming up with something. But when I thought how I wanted you to have something that would really make you happy, I came up empty-handed."

I thought I saw her expression soften, just a bit. "Pearl, you really do over think things."

"Hey-!" I started indignantly.

"But you are kind. I have known this. Did you think I would have been upset because I did not receive a gift?"

"Um, yeah, kind of."

Now she laughed. "Pearl, right now, the best Christmas gift you could give me is to come back to the Berlitz mansion with me and greet our seniors, and have fun. Alright?"

I grinned a little. "Yeah, sure. I guess that's what I should have done in the first place, huh?"

"Of course," she said coolly. So we were back to the sassy attitude.

As I got to my feet again, I felt something land on my head. It felt firm when I reached up and grasped it in my hand.

From up in the tree, I heard Chatlord caw loudly.

"Is that…"

Miss stared at the item I held in my hand, and I knew why. I tried to resist the urge to throw my harisen at Chatlord in the tree, seeing as it'd just get caught in the branch.

Mistletoe.

I felt my cheeks flare, and Missy's face was also bright red, for once. Instead of throwing it as far away as I could, like I should have done, I kept gripping it tightly.

Another impatient squawk, this time followed by a neigh from Rapidash. It brought me out of my trance, and I let the plant drop to the ground. I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly. "So, shall we g-"

Suddenly, the wind picked up fiercely, so much so that I had to shut my eyes to keep them from watering. As I the wind whipped at my nose and ears, I felt something warm and soft, direct contrast to the sharp knives of air, brush my cheek.

When it died down, I opened my eyes to see Missy several feet away with her back turned to me, but from the side of her face that I could see her blush was even deeper than before.

"Di…did you just-"

"I did not. I most certainly did not," she said, still not looking at me.

"But, that was-"

"I did nothing. Do you understand?"

"But-"

She turned to me, and although her face was still pink, the look in her eyes could kill a Snorlax. "Do you understand, Pearl?"

"…Yes," I said grudgingly.

"Then, let us go back to the mansion. Dia will not be able to cover us forever."

"He agreed to this?"

"Of course. I couldn't have gotten out of the arrangement otherwise," Missy said, heading off to the fire horse several yards away.

"Sebastian in a bad mood or something?" I said slyly. The guy may have cared for the Miss for years, but that didn't help his temperament any.

"He is simply stressed, that is all."

"That's not an excuse!" I said stubbornly. She said nothing, but kept walking towards Rapidash. I started after her, but noticed the white piece of cloth lying in the snow, a slightly different color from its surroundings. I picked it up and wiped off the ice that was stuck in the fabric. "Here. Can't forget it, right?"

She took the hat from me, but said nothing. I didn't expect her to. But when I was on the other side of the pokemon, I heard her voice, very softly, say, "…Thank you."

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. "You're welcome."

As the first flakes of snow fell to the ground, we got onto Rapidash and started the trip back, Chatot flying through the air after us.

**Normal POV**

Dia sat by himself on a rock outside the mansion, wrapped tightly in his scarf. With a faint pop, a small sprite with pink dreadlocks and leaf-like tails appeared next to him.

Dia smiled. "Hi there, Mespirit. Did it go okay?"

A nod.

"That's good. Oh, that reminds me," Reaching into his backpack, he took out a chocolate bar, broke it in two, and handed a piece to Mespirit. "Want some? It's Christmas, after all."

The being of Emotion chirped it's thanks and bit off a rather large chunk of chocolate goodiness.

Dia remained in his position on the rock for a few minutes, chewing silently on his treat. From the mansion, the song "Stanley the Soft-Nosed Stantler" could be heard, Blue's voice accompanying it in high soprano. "Hey, Mespirit? Do you think they liked their Christmas this year?"

Mespirit gave a noncommittal shrug, but also flicked Dia's scarf with one of it's tails, almost reassuringly.

He laughed. "Yeah, I'll have to ask them myself. Thanks, Mespirit. Merry Christmas."

The sprite smiled, then disappeared into air with another small pop. Finishing his bar of chocolate, Dia yawned, stretched, then got up and walked back into the Berlitz mansion. Approaching the table, he saw Pearl and Platina at the back balcony, clearly unsure of how to get inside with Sebastian lurking so close by. Catching his partner's eye, Dia winked, dove around the table and through the doors to the kitchen, reappearing moments later wheeling in a cart with a giant pink cake on it.

"Everyone, could I have your attention, please?" He called. Slowly, the other guests also gathered around, and Sebastian also left his post near the balcony to scurry up to him. From the corner of his eye, Dia saw Pearl seize the opportunity to open the door and slip inside, Platina right behind him. Both quietly assumed positions behind Dia and the enormous cake.

"Master Dia," Sebastian whispered, gazing at the cake with enormous eyes, "may I ask as to the meaning of this?"

"It's time for cake!" Dia explained, both to the butler and to the room at large.

Gold, who had been leaning against a wall, grinned. "In case you haven't noticed, dude, we've been eating cake all night."

"No, this is a special cake that I made," Dia said. "It's in celebration for Christmas, but it's also for-"

"Oh!" Blue exclaimed, clapping her hands happily, "Did you really make it? Dia, you're such a sweetie!"

"Yes, I did, Miss Blue~"

"I think I'm speaking for everybody when I say that I have no idea what's going on," Red said. Green, Yellow, Crystal, and Emerald all nodded, the last eyeing the cake especially warily.

"I asked Dia to make a birthday cake for Silver!" Blue cried joyously.

All eyes turned to Silver, who froze from where he had obviously been trying to escape through the same balcony that Pearl and Platina had just come in.

Sapphire broke the silence by exclaiming, "It's yer birthday, Silver?" followed by Ruby's, "No wonder it's such a beautiful cake!"

Gold's grin turned even wider. "Oh~ Silver ~ dear~ _you know what this means, don't you?"_

Immediately, Silver made a lunge for the open door. Gold, however, grabbed him from behind, dragging him down. As they rolled around on the floor, Silver's arm accidentally hit Platina's leg, knocking her into the cake. Just before she fell, she grabbed onto Pearl, pulling them both, headfirst, into thick and fluffy birthday cake.

"Hey, no fair!" Dia complained, "And I've been restraining myself all week!" His self-control obviously gone, he dove in right after them, munching away.

From the floor, Gold started laughing. "Hey, Silver, looks like you got lucky! You don't have to get dumped into this thing after all!"

Silver only shook his head, exasperated.

It wasn't long before everyone was laughing, pokemon and trainers alike, covered in Pecha Berry icing.

And under the Christmas tree, three camouflaged sprites looked upon the scene and smiled.

**A/N: A little rushed, since I had to make the deadline. Hopefully everyone was IC, considering I had to catch myself several times while I was writing.**

**Explanations-**

**Time…after the Platinum arc, maybe? **

**Yes, Platina calls Ruby 'Monsieur'. I think he'd prefer to be called that way.**

**I based the Sinnoh legend on a Greek myth called 'Pyramus and Thisbe'. Try looking it up, it really is a sad story. Think 'Romeo and Juliet'.**

**Dia bakes two cakes, one for Blue and Silver, and one for Platina herself.**

**-Just to make sure no one gets confused.**

**So, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, everyone! Oh, and a Happy Birthday to Silver, too! And many MOOOoooore~-hack-**


End file.
